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I recently came across this article in the New York Times, and I urge everyone to read it. In this OP-ED, entitled “Sugar Season.It’s Everywhere, And Addictive,” the authors list the myriad health issues that can stem from sugar. They write,

“In a recent study, we showed that sugar, perhaps more than salt, contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease. Evidence is growing, too, that eating too much sugar can lead to fatty liver disease, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and kidney disease.”

The OP-ED continues, stressing the addictive nature of sugar, how sugar is everywhere in our lives, and how promoting “the consumption of whole, natural foods” can help us avoid the sweet stuff this sugar season.

In the annual “America’s Health Rankings”, a list calculated by the United Health Foundation (UHF), the American Public Health Association, and the Partnership for Prevention, both obesity and inactivity rates were still on the rise. The list assess each state’s performance on 27 core health measures, but perhaps the most important information that came to light was the following:

According to the report, U.S. residents are more sedentary than ever before, despite encouraging findings in last year’s report, and it is leading to greater prevalence of chronic conditions like obesity and diabetes.

Specifically, the report found that:
•29.4% of adults are obese, a 7% increase from 2013;
•23.5% of all residents are considered sedentary, up 3% from 2013; and
•9.6% of adults live with diabetes, more than double the number living from 20 years ago.

You can read the full article here. This again highlights the importance of healthy diet and exercise, and is another reminder of how the #61DayChallenge can help you with your fitness and health goals.

Join the 61 Day Challenge!

To learn more about the DMC 2014 61 Day Health Challenge and how it can help all of us to cut back on sugar and exercise more during the holiday season, just click on: www.61daychallenge.com

It is truly wonderful to see the 61 Day Challenge, and all it entails, so eagerly embraced by members of the DMC team. Michael, the Laboratory Supervisor
at the Harper STAT Lab, recently emailed me the following video, which you can view by clicking HERE.

Michael writes,

“Here is a video of my lab assistants doing one of their daily workouts that began as part of their 61 day challenge – they have been doing 3 or 4 for a 1 minute impromptu during their shift whenever the mood strikes them.”

Halima Crutchfield, Care Coordination Specialist at Harper-Hutzel, took the 61 Day Challenge Pledge to make healthier choices in her life including exercising 5 days a week, eating healthy, drinking plenty of water and consuming less sugar. By making these changes, Halima has not only lost 8 pounds since the start of the challenge, but she feels better. In addition, she’s encouraged her sister to join her in this challenge.

“The lesson I am re-learning is that this is a lifestyle change,” said Halima. “This is a slow process for me but I’m worth it. I look forward to the day when making healthy food choices will come as second nature to me.”

Halima is enjoying this journey and views this as an opportunity to make an investment in her health. Congratulations and keep up the great work Halima!

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it’s time once again to launch the season of marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes . . . cornbread drenched in melted butter . . . and the sugar-loaded soft drinks and cocktails that all too often inflame our appetites and lead to massive over-eating.

Let’s face it, my friends: for many of us, the holiday season has long been a license to gorge on huge helpings of calorie-loaded mashed potatoes and grease-laden turkey stuffing (along with the 20-ounce cola drinks and the snack-time goodies) which can trigger a runaway fat attack.

But let’s hang on a minute. Before we dive into that second piece of gooey pecan pie, let’s ask ourselves: do we really have to consume all those thousands of fat-building calories in order to celebrate the holidays with good fellowship and good will to all?

Surprisingly enough, the answer is a resounding “no”!

For all of us who’ve taken the DMC 61 Day Health Challenge Pledge to abstain from sugary drinks, fried foods and “junk foods” until the end of the year, the good news is that there’s a better way to enjoy the holidays than stuffing ourselves with needless calories.

So what’s the first step on the road to making sure this holiday season doesn’t leave you feeling like a leftover stuffed sausage at the end of a Roman banquet?

The answer can be found in a single word: moderation.

To understand why that word is so important, consider this single fact: the typical Thanksgiving feast at grandma’s place (turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potato, mashed potato, cornbread, greens, pumpkin or pecan pie with whipped cream and beer, wine or spirits for the adults) often adds up to a whopping 3,500 calories . . . which turns out to be the same number of calories contained in a pound of fat.

A disturbing thought?

You bet it is. Now add in the “extras” that so often accompany the holidays (those chocolate doughnuts for breakfast at grandma’s, and the pizza-blowout at lunchtime, with plenty of peppermint sticks and cheesy-flapdoodles in between) . . . and you can see why this time of year is such a calorie-trap for all of us.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

To avoid the dangers of overeating and overdrinking during the holidays, a really helpful strategy is: eat and drink more slowly than usual . . . while also eating less of each item on the menu.

And while we’re at it, here are a few other holiday “tips” designed to help us achieve moderation and cut down on the holiday calorie-count.

Eat a small, low-fat and high-fiber meal (fruit salad and a cereal bar?) before that giant feast at grandma’s, so you’ll feel less temptation to gorge on the mashed potatoes.

Drink less alcohol before the feast . . . since alcohol is notorious for its ability to inspire the human appetite.

A half-hour before the Big Dining Event, fill up on water or a sugar-free beverage.

As the holiday meal begins in earnest, follow the “Three-Quarters Rule” by loading 75 percent of your plate with non-fatty, low-sugar foods such as vegetables, fruit salad and lean meat.

My friends, there’s no doubt that the holidays represent a special challenge for all of us who’ve taken the “DMC Pledge” to improve our health by cutting back on sugar and exercising more between now and the end of the calendar year.

But there’s also no doubt that we can meet that challenge . . . by using our heads and thinking about every forkful and spoonful we put into our mouths at this festive time of the year.

Here’s wishing all of us a joyful, happy and healthy holiday season, as we gather to say thanks for all our blessings in 2014!

[To learn more about the DMC 2014 61 Day Health Challenge and how it can help all of us to cut back on sugar and exercise more during the holiday season, just click on: www.61daychallenge.com]

Are you ready for a few truly astonishing facts about the human heart?

Fact: the average heart will beat 2.5 billion times during its owner’s lifetime.

Fact: while pounding away without letup, that same heart will over a lifetime pump more than 1.5 million gallons of blood through the body’s 60,000 miles of veins, arteries and capillaries.

Fact: the energy generated by the typical human heart during a lifetime would be enough to power a medium-sized truck to the moon and back.

Those are some awesome numbers, don’t you think?

Looking at them, it’s easy to see why medical science has long believed that achieving good heart health is the key to enjoying a long and healthy life. And those of us who work day in and day out to help patients at the Detroit Medical Center couldn’t agree more.

Which is why we recently launched our yearly “DMC 61 Day Health Challenge,” during a high-spirited Kick Off event that brought doctors, nurses, teachers, community leaders and a mob of fired-up high school students together to take the “Less Sugar, More Steps!” Pledge at DMC Harper University Hospital.

The Pledge is our way of saying: “We can all do a better job of protecting our hearts – by paying closer attention to the food we eat and the amount of exercise we get each day.”

The Challenge is a public education program – enthusiastically endorsed by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who attended the recent Kick Off extravaganza at Harper Hospital – in which the participants agree to abstain from sugary drinks (no more “Whiz Cola” for a while!), fried foods and “junk” foods until the end of the year.

The exciting Challenge program also asks participants to exercise moderately for 30 minutes, several times a week . . . while helping to educate at least one family member or friend about the important relationship between what we eat and how healthy we are.

Sounds like a win-win program, right?

And the best part is that you can get started immediately . . . by taking advantage of a simple, easy-to-use (and cost-free) “Life Check” tool that will help you assess your cardiovascular health right now and then measure your progress during the Challenge.

Designed by the American Heart Association, Life Check can assist you in outlining your personal health goals and then working to meet them throughout the coming days of the Challenge’s “Less Sugar, More Steps!” health-improvement program.

To get started, all you have to do is go to the Challenge website (www.61daychallenge.com) and then click on the icon marked Before You Start, and you’ll be off and running.

You can have a lot of fun designing and implementing your own day-by-day strategy for improving your cardiovascular health during the Challenge.

Even better, you can also lower your risk of being affected by one other important health Fact:

The Fact that heart disease is by far the leading cause of death in the U.S., with more than 2,600 people (nearly two per minute) dying from heart ailments every single day.

That unfortunate Fact speaks for itself, my friends . . . which is why we’re all Challenging ourselves, right now, to learn how to take better care of our hearts!

We’re nine days into the 61 Day Challenge. How are you doing? Grammy award winning producer and Stellar award winning gospel artist J Moss tells us how he’s doing with the 61 Day Challenge in a short video here: http://instagram.com/p/vL_tJduku0/

Want to take the 61 Day Challenge of Less Sugar and More Steps? You can learn more about it here at www.61DayChallenge.com.